Football: Lions snack on young Pies

Royals have made early amends for last year’s failed premiership bid with a 56-point drubbing of Denmark-Walpole in their much-anticipated grand final rematch at McLean Park on Sunday.

Both teams fielded less than half of their 2010 grand final players, but the new-season line-up looked more promising for Royals after they took off in the second half to claim an early confidence-boosting win.

The hungry Lions piled on seven majors in the final quarter to blowout their lead to more than eight goals, a performance coach Darrell Panizza said was praiseworthy given the oppressive heat.

“I think the majority of us handled the weather better than the opposition and to win the first game of the year by eight goals is fantastic,” he said.

“Hopefully we can sustain how we played … we’ve got players to come back into our side and we were far from our best on the weekend.”

Despite fielding a relatively-new team, Lions showed brilliant signs, with skipper Cleve Humphries in vintage form across half forward to set up three early goals.

He also took a big hang over opponent Johann Schroeder in the second term.

Young gun Darcy Reader put in a best-on-ground performance in the midfield.

Bulked-up youngster Ethan Panizza showed versatility when he was given a defensive role, stifling Magpies’ only multiple-goal kicker Jack Hickey.

Magpies player-coach James McRae denied his side was suffering any form of premiership hangover, saying the new season had brought with it a new team.

“Royals were hungrier than us after last year and were deserved winners,” he said.

“But we had four players aged 17 or under out there with three of them playing their first league games.

“We are aware we’ve got some work to do, but obviously the young kids are a very positive sign.”

League debutants Jake Stewart, Jordan Rolt and Ben Thies all showed poise among experienced campaigners, with Rolt snagging a late goal to reduce what was almost an embarrassing scoreline.

McRae was also pleased with the form of returned league player Mark Tippett, who provided a tall option coming out of defence to assist lightning-fast recruit Leon Wilson.

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